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‘Behind each figure is a vulnerable child in care': Court kept in dark about 400 without social workers
Tusla's 'unprecedented' failure to notify the courts it had not allocated social workers to almost 400 children has broken trust in the agency, a District Court judge has said.
Tusla, the child and family agency, is obliged to notify the court if a child is not appointed a social worker.
Judge Conor Fottrell said 'shocking' and 'concerning figures' arising from a court-directed inquiry outline the extent of the agency's failure to comply with orders relating to children in State care.
Appearing before the judge at a sitting of Dublin District childcare court this week, Tusla chief executive Kate Duggan apologised for shortcomings that led to the agency's widespread noncompliance with court orders. She stopped short of accepting sole responsibility for the failings.
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Last July, Judge Fottrell directed Tusla to carry out the inquiry to identify instances where the agency did not notify the court about children in State care due to court orders who were not allocated social workers. He directed that the review must also consider compliance with other court directions relating to children subject to care orders.
On foot of these directions, Tusla submitted a report to the court earlier this month. Citing the report, Judge Fottrell said the agency identified 395 cases of children subject to care orders and not allocated social workers that had not been flagged to the court.
During the inquiry, Tusla considered the cases of 1,052 children subject to care orders stretching back to 2009, the judge noted. He said 859 court directions were breached in relation to 471 children. He said the court was not notified of the breaches.
Judge Fottrell described Tusla's widespread failure to comply with court orders as 'unprecedented'. 'Behind each figure is a vulnerable child in care,' he said.
The judge said it was early 2024 when he first became aware of issues relating to Tusla's failure to notify the court of non-allocation.
It is 'regrettable' that the court had to raise questions to bring the information in the report to light.
Judge Fottrell said the court's trust in the agency 'has been broken'.
In a judgment published in March this year, following the court's inquiry into the matter, Judge Fottrell was heavily critical of the agency's 'extraordinary failure' to comply with orders relating to about 250 children granted over the last 15 years.
Led by David Leahy, senior counsel for Tusla, Ms Duggan told the court that in December 2022, she was informed by the agency's regional chief for Dublin Mid Leinster of cases relating to 40 children left without a social worker, and a failure to notify the courts of such.
Ms Duggan – who was then Tusla's director of services and integration – said her understanding at the time was that the issue was confined to a specific area.
Ms Duggan agreed with the judge that she did not escalate the issue with the then-chief executive. She suggested she would have escalated it if aware of its scale at the time.
While noting Tusla's position that no 'active' decision was made not to notify the court of the cases, Judge Fottrell said nobody brought the cases to the court's attention despite being aware of the issue since December 2022.
'That is a catastrophic failure at local, regional and national level,' he said.
Asked by the judge if she, as chief executive of Tusla, accepted responsibility for the agency's failure to comply with court orders, Ms Duggan said: 'I think this is an agency-wide responsibility.'
Ms Duggan said Tusla has commissioned an external review to examine how the situation arose.
She outlined to the court efforts to increase recruitment of social workers to Tusla, to digitise file-management systems and other protocols aimed at mitigating risk of further breaches of court orders.
She said everyone within Tusla is now aware breaches are not tolerated.
